The susceptibility of monkey kidney cells to poliovirus in vivo and in vitro

Abstract

A comparison of the reaction to poliovirus by kidney cells in vivo and in vitro showed that the kidneys of rhesus or cynomolgus monkeys failed to support the multiplication of Y-SK virus when inoculated in vivo, but cells from these kidneys were highly susceptible in vitro. This is in contrast to the cells of capuchin monkeys which were resistant in vitro as well as in vivo. The inoculation of monkeys with cortisone did not enhance their in vivo susceptibility to virus. There was also no significant difference in the susceptibility of cultures derived from such animals as compared with those from control animals. The inoculation of the kidneys of living animals with virus suspended in trypsin also did not increase the susceptibility of the kidneys in vivo. The in vitro sensitivity of the susceptible kidney cells from animals inoculated in vivo was shown also by the fact that in several instances, when virus could not be detected in the supernatant fluids of kidney homogenates, virus could usually be found in cultures made from the other kidneys of these animals. Cells from the kidneys of a rhesus monkey inoculated 24 hours previously were plated by the plaque technique to determine the number of infectious centers. The number of plaques obtained by titration of a portion of these cells disrupted by homogenization was not significantly different. This was interpreted to mean that virus was not growing in the cells in vivo even to a limited extent but that virus was most likely adsorbed to the cells during the process of trypsinization.